Yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with writers and answered what seemed to Kommersant correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov an endless array of questions. Still, Kolesnikov believes that political opinion was expressed whether by those who avoided the meeting or by those who came and asked Putin why publicist Alexander Podrabinek was being harassed.
The meeting with the writers was planned some time ago (and not by the writers). Initially it was scheduled for July and then postponed until August. Gradually the list of writers was reduced from 25 to 10 (again, not at their initiative). Eventually the date was fixed for October 6. But on the evening of October 5 it was pushed back to October 7. At that point then the journalists believed that they had been invited to celebrate with Putin his 57th birthday.
In spite of how much the journalists like this idea, it had nothing to do with Putin's birthday. Every year he has several working meetings on his birthday (Kommersant wrote about last year's visit to see a trade union's upgraded courses and new studios on October 7)
Meanwhile, before the beginning of the meeting, in the Alexander Pushkin Literary Museum, the journalists were more interested in which writers attended the meeting and which did not. The names of Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Dmitry Bykov and Zakhar Prilepin were mentioned.
One of the meeting's organisers said Ulitskaya was in Madrid and could not come. It was strange that Prilepin's name was mentioned because he was not even invited. Bykov initially agreed but then said that he had a radio programme during that time. Eventually he explained unofficially that he didn't want to spoil a birthday by speaking about problems. This was a strange explanation - if you have problems or grievances you should go to the prime minister's meeting and tell him about them instead of dodging it.
|Nevertheless, Bykov did not dodge interviews in which he openly stated his position. Moreover, he inadvertently did everything he could to stir interest in this meeting -- his refusal to attend aroused more interest than his presence ever would have.
Judging by the attendees, the organisers decided to present every genre of modern literature to Putin. They invited Valentin Rasputin and Andrei Bitov whose names speak for themselves, Sergei Lukyanenko (sci-fi), Alexei Varlamov (literary historian), writer of detective stories (Tatyana Ustinova) and Alexander Arkhangelsky (literary critic)... No poets were invited to the meeting with the exception of Olesya Nikolayeva who sometimes writes prose, just in case. Writer Alexander Kabakov succinctly explained: "In Russia poets have never been considered writers."
Many writers and journalists were wondering about the absence of Natan Dubovitsky, the author of the novel "Close to Zero," that caused such a great stir.
Waiting in the hall for the beginning of the meeting the writers explained why they had come to meet Putin.
"I will say what I'm worried about. The Soviet Union's disintegration continues. Moreover, this process is getting worse. This is what I'm going to discuss with Mr Putin," Bitov said.
When I naively responded that the process of disintegration had ended long ago, Bitov replied: "Empires do not die so fast."
Bitov recalled that Putin had visited the Russian Pen Center (writers club) almost 10 years ago as acting president. Bitov was already in charge of the center at that point. "He visited us at the Pen Center and said: ‘What a miserable life you are leading here!' Well, today our life has become much more miserable," Bitov said.
Bitov had a yellow badge with a sovereign eagle on the lapel of his jacket. I thought he'd pinned it to himself because he was thinking about sovereign interests before the meeting. In a way I was right. He said: "This is a precise copy of the only award that I have not deserved - a badge of the member of the Academy of Arts. I like it because of the eagle."
Writer Yury Polyakov said he wanted to present Putin with two books "The Russia of Kick-Backs" and "The Gypsum Trumpet." "One is non-fiction and the other is fiction," he said without specifying which was which. "One will make him sad, and the other will please him," he said.
I asked Polyakov whether any of the books had influenced Putin but he did not answer. He did say that he was going to ask Putin to help save the village of Peredelkino. Polyakov explained that it had been attacked by raiders who "were trying to turn Peredelkino into a Rublyovka-style elite village."
Polyakov has already contributed to this process himself by building his own impressive house there. Speaking of the need to "protect the property of writers against brazen raiders," he was thinking not only about Boris Pasternak's house-museum.
At the beginning of the meeting Putin explained to the writers why he was there: "It is only at these kinds of meetings that we feel life in all of its diversity." Apparently, the writers were supposed to say or think the same. "It is necessary to meet if only because literature has always been a staple in the life of our people." He explained that whenever he started speaking with someone in Europe or Asia, "they immediately recalled Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy."
It goes without saying that neither Dostoyevsky nor Tolstoy would have been happy to learn that they have become nothing but outstanding Russian brand names.
Putin said that although fewer book titles were published in the Soviet Union, according to the recent sociological poll 40% of the country's population has not read a single book in a year." In pointing this out he somewhat devalued not only the capitalisation of those present (to use his own terms) but also the importance of the meeting itself.
Putin observed that in the past, writers received flats and cars from the government "while the authorities expected some political contribution from them."
"Now nobody expects anything now," Putin said and a couple of writers exchanged glances. They seemed sad.
"But Russian writers are now faced with the demands of the market that may prove to be tougher than the government's demands for ideological reciprocity. This leads to a decline in quality," Putin concluded.
He made it clear that the government and writers still have common subjects for discussion, for instance, concern about the preservation of the Russian language...
Putin promised to instruct his subordinates to change the rules for the conferment of government awards in literature and arts because none have been won by writers in a long time.
In other words, the issue of a writers' reciprocity remains current.
Valentin Rasputin was the first to be given the floor. He was going to stand and speak in a dignified manner but Putin asked him to sit down, which is understandable - apparently he did not want to listen to this speech while standing.
Rasputin congratulated the prime minister on his birthday and reassured him that "57 years is a medium age." He then turned to the problems of thick literary magazines, "half of which will disappear in a year if nothing is done."
"These magazines caused a revolution in the 1980s, if what happened then is considered a revolution... Now the government is not doing anything for literature! I was amazed that you dared to hold such a meeting, all the more so on your birthday..." Rasputin exclaimed.
"This was a coincidence," Putin said.
"I can see that the readers of magazines and books are under the influence of other forces," Rasputin continued without heeding anything. "They are losing the triumphant view of life in our times but it is possible to hold this view," Rasputin went on. He seemed to be more and more disappointed with every word: "Do we have the people that we had before? We have a population... Sometimes it seems that our cause (literature - A.K.) is coming to an end. Maybe this is what is happening. The computer kills the desire to read even Tolstoy... The computer is not subordinate to anyone!"
Rasputin sounded truly desperate and Putin tried to calm him down, saying that "literature is a live thought, no matter in what form it is expressed," that "there is no way back (regrettably - A.K.), and that "society took an interest in thick magazines because it was sick and tired of the ideological monopoly and poverty...and magazines were a window to freedom."
Judging by the remark that "not all spheres of life can be squeezed into the Procrustean bed of market demands" one might infer that thick magazines might at least receive some surprising benefits.
After this, the meeting was held behind the closed doors. Most of the writers took the floor, except for the most cultured ones, that is, those who did not insist on speaking, confident that they would be given the floor since they had been invited.
Nothing was said by Alexei Ivanov who flew from Perm and Alexander Kabakov who arrived from the village of Pavlovskaya Sloboda near Moscow.
Bitov's speech was the longest. He concentrated on the problems of the Russian PEN Center, about which he briefed journalists before the meeting. The center had been going through many economic hardships and is now involved in court hearings, one after another. Bitov asked Putin for help and Putin promised to get to the bottom of things, having mentioned that "there are some legal complications in this case."
Ustinova told the prime minister about her son who had to write a composition on Chekhov's novel "Students," that she said was too difficult to comprehend at this age.
Putin did not promise anything here.
Literary critic Arkhangelsky addressed Putin as a civic critic. He asked what happened with Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Podrabinek. Responding to the former name, Putin said, as before, that Khodorkovsky had committed crimes, including complicity in murder, for which he should be held responsible, that he can repent and ask for a pardon and that his application will be reviewed (that is, he will continue to stay in prison - A.K.)
As for Podrabinek, who had written an article that had insulted veterans, and even more so the Nashi movement and United Russia, Putin asked:
"What about him? Oh yes, I've heard this... Well, both sides are worth each other..."
Olesya Nikolayeva devoted her time to the ardent defence of the national idea - to protect immaterial values from outside encroachment (like Polyakov when he spoke about Peredelkino and the brazen raiders). She recalled Dostoyevsky's "The Possessed" and Verkhovensky who was going to "corrupt and be mean," and said that the latter has his followers today.
"I agree with you on many points," Putin said, finishing or rather curtailing her speech.
"It seems to me that at such meetings writers should speak about the problems of their readers," Kabakov said after a three hour-long meeting. "In this case they are real writers but here the writers concentrated on the problems of the writers. The reader feels humiliated primarily by his poverty, and nothing is worse for a writer than a humiliated reader. Nothing was said about the medical nurse who will only find self respect if her salary is enough for food and maybe for winter boots," Kabakov concluded.
According to Kommersant's sources, the government presidium will discuss this problem at today's session.
Andrei Kolesnikov